Understand urbanism and get off its back

Abstract

As we sink under the weight of design guidance and PPGs nationally, and the plethora of regional guidance they have spawned, the recognition that there needs to be a culture change of enormous proportions is not even on the radar. Within the current debates on urbanism and sustainability, a thorough understanding of traditional urban structure, forms, and building types has a vital role to play in the realisation of that agenda. However, it is of little value for PPGs or anything else to advocate these principles if the cultures of the producers and controllers of the built environment are mired in ideologies and rules that render it impossible. It is not getting better; it is arguably getting worse as single-issue ‘performance-based’ assessments become couched in an increasingly litigious culture. This is particularly relevant to greenfield and brownfield land. Even though we still seem to be able to mess up cities on a site-by- site basis, they manage to survive, despite our intrinsic anti-urbanism. Why? Because the vast majority of that fabric breaks today's ‘rules’ and that is why it works. If you do want good urbanism, first of all understand it, then get off its back. This paper is reprinted with the kind permission of the Town and Country Planning Association.